Sing

Letters written in response to an obituary rarely number more than a few. The Times' article this week on the life and passing of balladeer Pete Seeger, by contrast, drew nearly two dozen letters. Most who wrote reflected on Seeger's music, but some shared their personal experiences with the folk singer. One reader sent us a lengthy letter she received from Seeger in 1962 in response to her fan mail. "Take it easy, but take it," Seeger ended his response. Here is a selection of the letters on Seeger.

Beverly Hills pulled out all the stops to celebrate its 100 t h anniversary as a city Tuesday night, an easy feat given the abundant material created by dozens of notable composers and lyricists who have called the gilt-edged community home. A capacity crowd of about 1,500 attended the centennial concert and sing-along at the historic Saban Theater, where selections covered the melodic spectrum - from Igor Stravinsky's "Firebird" to George and Ira Gershwin's "Strike Up the Band" to David Rose's "The Stripper.

Dennis Dugan is a well-known Hollywood director ("Happy Gilmore," "Grown Ups"), but his real love is baseball. His son Kelly was a standout outfielder at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and is a member of the Philadelphia Phillies' 40-man roster. Dugan helped design the new $3-million Notre Dame High baseball field , and he's helping unveil it with some first-class entertainment. Dugan says that his friend, singer Neil Diamond , will open Notre Dame's field on Saturday, Feb. 22, at 10 a.m. by singing "Sweet Caroline.

Before the Denver Broncos take on the Seattle Seahawks at this year's Super Bowl, they will be serenaded by soprano Renée Fleming in a performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner. " Fleming has been tapped to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, set for Feb. 2 at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. A publicist for the soprano said it hasn't been determined yet if Fleming will be accompanied by musicians. The Super Bowl is to be broadcast on Fox, with kickoff time scheduled for 3:30 p.m. PST. PHOTOS: LA Opera through the years Fleming joins a long list of performers -- mostly pop stars, including Alicia Keys last year -- to have sung the national anthem at the Super Bowl.

Investigators are reviewing video and talking to witnesses to try to determine what led to a stabbing on the Red Line on Monday morning, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said. Ramon Montenegro, a spokesman for the sheriff's Transit Services Bureau, said deputies who arrived on scene have spoken to several witnesses. A passenger was stabbed about 9:18 a.m. by another rider and rushed to a hospital in grave condition after the train stopped at the Vermont/Santa Monica Station, said Metro spokesman Marc Littman.

BEIJING - Dennis Rodman helped Kim Jong Un mark his 31st birthday Wednesday with sport and song, serenading the North Korean dictator with a warbly rendition of “Happy Birthday” in a Pyongyang gymnasium and then leading fellow ex-NBA players in a game against a local squad. Spectators were not allowed to bring cameras into the modestly appointed arena, but video posted later online showed Rodman in sunglasses leading the crowd - many of them in sport coats and dress shirts - in a singing tribute to “The Marshal.” Then the Americans, in blue and white uniforms, faced off against the North Koreans, or the “Torch Team,” in red. Simon Cockerell, a tour guide with Beijing-based Koryo tours who is traveling with Rodman's group, described the event as a “bizarre and unusual occasion.” In a video dispatch from Pyongyang posted to Koryo's Facebook page, he said the teams played two 10-minute halves, with the North Koreans prevailing at the final buzzer (by a score of 47-39, according to Associated Press)

The Season 4 finale of NBC's revived musical competition "The Sing-Off" was down in the ratings compared with its last closer two years ago, according to early numbers from Nielsen. The episode, which crowned country crooners Home Free as champions, drew an average of 5.19 million viewers over two hours and scored a rating of 1.3 in the key 18-49 age demographic. Among those advertiser-desired young adults, the rating fell 35% from last Monday and 19% from the show's previous season finale. However, this season concluded during the week of Christmas -- a considerably tougher challenge than the contest's third cycle, which had its last episode in November.

It looks like Barbara Walters was fascinating enough to give ABC a ratings win Wednesday night. "Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2013" drew 8.84-million viewers on average and a rating of 2.1 in the key 18-to-49 demographic, making it the highest-rated telecast of the night on the major networks, according to Nielsen. Viewership for the retiring news veteran's last "Most Fascinating People" special, which revealed...

Two kinds of cinematic traditions can be celebrated in the coming weeks, starting with the annual Christmas Eve "Fiddler on the Roof" sing-along dreamed up by the Laemmle chain and now expanding to no less than six theaters. The Broadway musical, based on the classic Tevye stories by preeminent Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem, was made into an Oscar-winning film (for Oswald Morris' cinematography and John Williams' score) in 1971 that boasts Isaac Stern playing violin on the soundtrack.

NBC's resurrected musical contest "The Sing-Off" fell Wednesday night from its debut, while ABC's comedies made up some ground in the ratings week to week. Among the major networks, it was CBS that won the night, though its shows' numbers are down. "The Sing Off," the series hosted by Nick Lachey that had been off the air for two years, drew 5.92 million viewers to its second episode, and a rating of 1.8 among key 18- to 49-year-olds, according to early numbers from Nielsen. In the young adults demographic, it was down 25% from the premiere Monday, though that was expected because the debut was helped by its lead-in, "The Voice.